Old versions

Backup Maker is intended to protect your data from accidents, such as technical issues, malware attacks and deletion. As its name suggests, the program does so by creating backups of your files, which you can later restore in case anything alters their integrity. It has a nicely designed interface; yet, it would be better if users were given the chance to switch its color combination.

When you start the program, you can pick one of its two main functions: backup and restore. Luckily, it does not require much effort to create a backup thanks to the guidance of a wizard. Likewise, the product comes with excellent help documentation.

The backup task creation wizard can be run in two modes. Thus, the standard mode is simplified by using various default parameters, while the expert mode gives you more control over the results. The wizard starts with the selection of the desired files and folders, but you can also set it to back up libraries, browser bookmarks and email messages. Next, it is possible to use inclusion and exclusion filters, which can be done by name and size. After that, you may automate the process by scheduling the task to run at a given time or at specified frequency. In addition, you can set the task to be executed only if the system is idle. Another possibility is to let specific system events, like inserting a USB drive or trigger a backup.

The program supports two backup types: full and partial, depending on whether you want to copy all files or just those which are new or have been changed. Moreover, the tool can create various instances of your backups or simply overwrite the previous one. Fortunately, the resulting files can be compressed to save storage space and even encrypted and protected with passwords. The backups can be saved on a local computer or network, burn onto discs or uploaded to an FTP site. Similarly, they can be automatically split to fit an optical disc.

All in all, Backup Maker is definitely an excellent data backup solution. It is easy to use and provides enough features to satisfy the needs of most users. However, you should know that there are other more advanced tools. In this respect, there are things the program cannot do, like uploading backups to cloud services and performing smart synchronizations. The product is available for free as a standard edition, which is fully functional but shows promotional screens. The Pro edition, in turn, comes with free technical support.